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Medicine (Term)
Medicines and Medical Procedures vary between Sime and Gen Territories. (Source: Index card file. House of Zeor) Treatment room --- workbenches and glass-fronted cabinets filled with strange objects and weirdly shaped containers. Wheeled table, all kinds of medications, fosebine, tranquilizers, tube of healing ointment with sterility symbol, disinfectant. Klyd and Denrau use a field kit on Raul -- take measurements with instruments unknown to Hugh. Give Raul a pink liquid, then an orange-colored wafer for vomiting and spasms in changeover. Hugh mentions "immunity shots," as if he knew what that meant. Some kind of vaccine, hypodermic needles of some sort. Householding pharmacy --- Klyd has served an "exacting" apprenticeship in Zeor's, during which he learned which mushrooms were poisonous, and for whom. Gens seem to have hospitals with operating rooms. (Source: Index card file. First Channel) 'Gen Injuries: '''Anomalies were dark areas in which the cells did not produce a steady pulse of selyn. "Healing" or pain reduction by simulating Need inducing an increase to normal level of production. '''Sime Injuries: ' (Risko) Weak but pulsating field with its gross anomaly at point where cells were dying. Then, entire selyn field darkened around the edges, cells around the wound were "dreadfully bright" drawing too much from the body, both consuming and wasting it. "Death coming in a black wave from the farthest points of his body." "Plume of selyn." Extending laterals in wound, using own field as a tourniquet -- wound closing, blood clotting, stopping selyn loss. (Source: Index card file. Unto Zeor, Forever -- Third Draft) A sick Gen needs a Sime as surely as a sick Sime needs a good Gen therapist: The basic law of medicine works best with a trained Donor, although with non-donors and GN's is still present --- bodies respond to the Sime nager --- Digen's patients better than they "should." Selyn heals. Treatment routines "create conditions under which selyn production can maximize. The selyn the Gen body stores is useless to the Gen --- a mere metabolic byproduct. It's the process of production that causes healing --- that puts the tissues, cell by cell, into touch with...with...some sort of reservoir of higher powers." Digen knows its there, can sense it directly, works with it daily, and gets results. Ilyana, as midwife, will put her barriers up solid and locked --- like a fused shield --- for a Sime woman giving birth. In-Territory wouldn't use x-rays, not necessary for channels. (Source: Index card file. Unto Zeor, Forever -- Third Draft -- "Medical Profession") History of medicine as a secret society --- In early years of the mutation, Gens rioted against medical men wherever they found them hiding. Eventually the last remnants, guarding their knowledge and identity from the outside world, withdrew behind walls disguised as monks. Took into training only those students who were most trusted and passed arduous testing. Even then, spied on them constantly, fearful they'd all be killed and knowledge lost forever. Habit remained after danger passed --- medical students kept isolated from outside world. (Source: Index card file. "Gen Medicine" --- Letter from Jacqueline Lichtenberg to Michael Amsden -- January 4, 1976) In monkish environment, they kept a lot of KNOWLEDGE which they couldn't apply because the supportive technology collapsed: refrigerated blood banks just coming back, but they know all about cross-matching. Use electric shock for ventricular fibrillation, but don't have cardiographs. Closed heart massage is routine, but open heart massage is a daring new technique. Transplants considered a ridiculous legend but somebody will try it soon, when they invent a heart/lung machine. (Source: Index card file. Unto Zeor, Forever --- "Medical Profession") Days just passing when medicine was taught like a religion of revealed secrets. Medicine had borne most of the blame in the popular Gen mind, for the Sime~Gen mutation --- irresponsible use of drugs and certification of chemicals as safe --- low moral standards of medical men. Interns and medical students reside on grounds of hospital in regulated and inspected quarters. In-Territory only the channels are physicians. Ilyana is a midwife, which Digen thinks is no job for a Gen. '''Channels as physicians -- in-Territory medicine: '''Working with another channel, a channel could control much of his own bleeding, pain and muscle tension --- but must be conscious (actually in "suspended" state.) Bone marrow stimulants, transcutaneous nutrient packs, panspectrum antibiotics, precision field managment, anti-spasmodic drugs. Rior has a physician. Simes have the same horror of cutting flesh as do Tecton simes.